Kern County CA Archives History - Books .....The Gusher Era 1934
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Book Title: Where Rolls The Kern

CHAPTER XX. 
The Gusher Era.

   RESIDENTS of distant places who know no other fact of Kern County, know of it
as a land of oil gushers, for back in 1909 and 1910 a series of oil gushers came
in that caused the whole world to sit up and take notice, and while these
gushers have long since subsided, such outstanding ones as the great Lakeview
will be talked of in oil circles for generations to come.

   The story of the gushers of Kern County is really the story of the West Side
Field and its towns, for the story of each is closely interlinked with that of
the other.

   Following the bringing in of a number of good commercial wells in the Midway
Valley, and great gas wells in the Buena Vista Hills in the latter part of 1909,
a host of oil land locators swarmed over the territory, and located everything
in sight, so to speak. Then came the famous Taft Oil Land Withdrawal Order of
September, 1909, which meant that if these locators were to hold their lands
they must develop them. The development efforts made on a wide front led to the
bringing in of some of the biggest gushers the oil world has ever known, and in
the wake of the gushers came an oil boom that put the earlier one back in the
shade.

   Among those who had made locations were a number who had not done their
location work, and this caused a sensational rush to the West Side on the night
of December 31, 1909. There were charges of claim jumping, followed with threats
and counter threats and such things that go along with a rush of this kind, but
the New Year of 1910 dawned with far less disturbance than had been feared by
the more apprehensive ones.

   The early part of 1910 saw feverish development. However, the first gusher
worthy of extended note came in in 1909. It was the Santa Fe's famous
10,000-barrel well on Section 6, 32-23, in the North Midway Field. In Section
10, 32-24, over in the Buena Vista Hills, nearly seven miles North of Maricopa,
the Honolulu, first known as a great gasser, became a flowing well, yielding
3,000 to 4,000 barrels daily.

   Among other early gushers were the 5/. Lawrence in Section 35, 32-23; the
Crandall in Section 31, 31-25, and the Standard's gusher on Section 30, 32-24,
the largest flowing 10,000 barrels a day.

   These were all gushers, and real gushers, but they were to pale into
insignificance in comparison with what were soon to come. March 6, 1910, the
Mays gusher, on Section 30, 32-24, drenched the surrounding country with oil.
Its yield was never determined, but it is generally conceded that the flow ran
into many thousands of barrels a day. It was never gotten under control, but it
finally subsided; and then it broke loose a second time and practically repeated
its first performance.

   Just as the Mays gusher had outranked its predecessor, it was soon to a have
a rival with which it was not the slightest competitor. At 8 o'Clock Monday
night, March 14, 1910, the Lakeview gusher, at the West end of fractional
Section 25, 12-24 (a mile and a half North of Maricopa) suddenly hurled its
baler into the crown block, and started to spit forth oil at a rate that had
never been known before. It is estimated that it flowed 18,000 barrels in the
first twenty-four hours

   Then, Tuesday night something happened down at the bottom of the 2260-foot
hole. It stopped flowing, and then suddenly came a shower of rocks, sand and
gas, followed by a renewed flow of oil. It was months before anyone got near it
again. It literally rained oil over the country-side. All thoughts of
controlling it had to be abandoned, and dirt reservoirs were hurriedly and
crudely thrown up to catch at least a part of the flow. By September, 5,000,000
barrels of the Lakeview's output had been trapped in these make-shift
reservoirs, to say nothing of other millions of gallons that had escaped and
done considerable damage. At one stage in its mad and unprecedented performance
its output reached 68,000 barrels a day. After ten or eleven months it was still
yielding 8,000 or 10,000 barrels a day.

   After being drilled to a depth of 2145 feet, the Consolidated Midway on
Section 30, 12-23, came in June 20, 1910, with a flow of 10,000 barrels a day.
This well was controlled and continued to produce liberally for some time, until
it finally went to water, as appears to be the habit with a great number of gushers

   Other gushers of the Midway group that added to the fame of the area, and to
its staggering production figures were the 5,000- barrel well of the Maricopa
Thirty-Six on Section 36, 12-24; the Sunset Monarch which made its debut with a
24,000-barrel daily flow; the three Standard gushers on Section 30, 32-24, and
the Sage wells of the Union Oil Company on Section 35, 12-24. The latter
included in their output an excessive quantity of sand and rocks.

   Included in the North Midway Valley list of gushers were the Santa Fe, the
St. Lawrence, the Crandall, Mays, American Oilfields No. 79, the latter one
maintaining for a time a daily flow of 22,000 barrels; Eagle Creek, Le-Blanc,
California Midway, the Pioneer Midway, and the Santa Fe on Section 25, 31-22;
the Midway Premier, and the Midway Five, on Section 5, 32-23.

   The American Oilfield No. 56 caught fire at 1:30 P.M., September 11, 1910,
and soon ignited the nearby Honolulu Consolidated formerly the Crandall. By well
directed efforts the fire was finally extinguished.

   The above by no means constitutes a complete list of Kern County gushers, but
it does contain the names of a number of the outstanding ones.

   Of course, the news of these great gushers spread to all parts of the world,
and soon the territory was invaded by a veritable army of speculators and
inexperienced operators. This quite naturally led to the indiscriminate drilling
of wells, and, as could not very well be otherwise, many a dry hole was all some
of the operators got for their money and efforts. While this was rather hard on
the amateur operators and their financial backers, it aided the existing
producers, in that it served to hold down production to some degree, and thus at
least minimized an epidemic of overproduction naturally resulting from such
previously unheard of yields.

   These gushers were the means of building and maintaining towns in much the
manner of th [sic] old flush gold camps. In fact, it is doubtful if any gold
camp ever had much on Taft for the first few years of its existence. Although
Taft soon became the metropolis of the West Side Field, it was not, however, the
pioneer town of the field. McKittrick was really the pioneer business center of
the district; being known as Asphalto until 1895 A railroad was built to it in
1891, and it became the home of the Standard Asphalt Company, a concern that
refined asphalt for paving purposes. However, its first store building was not
built until 1900, for which stroke of the enterprise the honor goes to H. F.
Peters, who also became the first postmaster. However, Mrs. Quarra had
previously served as a sort of unofficial postmistress, handling the mail for a
few of her neighbors as a matter of accomodation.

   It incorporated as a city in September, 1911, and chose the following
officers; Trustees, R. Butterfield, President; W. T. McCarty, S. A. Hubbard, H.
E. Phelan, Fred Ehlers; City Clerk, Warren Bridges.

   Although McKittrick shared to some extent in the great wave of prosperity
that swept over the West Side during, and following, the gusher era, it did not
seem to profit to the same degree as did some of its younger neighbor cities

   Back in 1902 the first railroad station in the Sunset Field was called
Hazleton Then the railroad was built over to a point the railroad company chose
to call Monarch. There were some big wells at a point a mile or two distant from
Monarch, and business visitors, and those employed in the locality, formed the
habit of getting off at this point, which eventually became known as Maricopa.
Its coming into existence as a town was due strictly to its then advantageous
location in relation to drilling activities. The first store was opened in 1906
by F. F. Torpey, the first hotel by William Carter. C. W. Beaty opened a store
in 1908, and filled the office of postmaster for a number of years.

   It was not until 1909 and 1910 that Maricopa really began to shine as a
business center. Those big gushers did the trick, and it soon became known both
as the "Mother City of the West Side," and, more to its liking, as "The Gusher
City " It was incorporated as a city of the sixth class in 1911, with the
following official family: C. W. Beatty, W. E. Thorton, James Wallace, H. C.
Doll, C. Z. Irvine, Trustees; E. E. Ballagh, Clerk; M. Y. White, Treasurer; T.
W. Brown, Recorder; L. R. Godward, City Attorney; H. J. Babcock, Marshal; Harry
Parke, Fire Chief; L. L. Coleman, Engineer.

   About a third of its business district was destroyed by fire June 20, 1911,
but it was soon rebuilt, and Maricopa continued to flourish for some time,
although Taft had already outstriped it in the race for commercial supremacy. It
has since lost considerable of its commercial importance, but it is still on the
map. In 1912 the enterprising citizens of Maricopa took a leading part in the
agitation for a direct road to the coast through Ventura County, and that road
was just completed and had its formal opening to travel in 1933.

   Taft is truly the miracle city of the West Side. In 1907 the Santa Fe
acquired oil land holdings in the field, and extended the Sunset Western
Railroad, in which it had a half interest, to a point a little Northwest of the
present townsite of Taft, and put in a sidetrack. In the Winter of 1908-09 a
contingent of Bakersfield people took an excursion trip to the end of the line.
They found there then two or three shacks, and a few acres covered with oil well
casing, timbers and like material.

   By the summer of 1909 there were ten or a dozen business houses and about 200
inhabitants. In July of 1909, H. A. Hopkins, pioneer merchant, was named
postmaster. The railroad first called the place Moro, but there was objection to
this on account of a town of a similar name, although different spelling, in San
Luis Obispo County. It was then changed to Moron, but the Postal Department
objected to this on account of Colorado having a town by that name, and the
abbrevation [sic] for California and Colorado being somewhat confusing at times.

The story goes that Hopkins was sitting in the office of Postmaster R. A.
Edmonds in Bakersfield, discussing the matter, when he glanced at the picture of
the then President, William Howard Taft. "Let's call it Taft," said Hopkins, and
that settled the matter of the name, so we are informed on what appears to be
good authority.

   If Hopkins hadn't had other sources of income that postmastership might have
proved his financial undoing, for his pay as postmaster was derived solely from
cancellation, and that was limited to something like $250 per quarter. The
business of the office grew by leaps and bounds, and it was soon necessary to
employ quite a staff to care for the mails. Hopkins had to pay these employes
out of his own pocket for something like nine months or a year—the time
necessary to get the classification of the office changed. The citizens were not
unappreciative of Hopkins' sportsmanship in the matter, however, and by giving
dances, and by public subscription, in 1911, they raised sufficient funds to
build a creditable concrete postoffice building. Up to that time cigar boxes had
served as mail boxes.

   Hopkins was also head of the Taft Public Utilities Company, a concern that
shipped domestic water in tank cars from East Bakers-field to Taft, and sold it
by the barrel. Hopkins is now a prominent member of the California State Highway
Commission, but he still calls Taft home.

   Early in the morning of October 22, some fellow who is reported to have
imbibed too freely—a practice not altogether uncommon in that day and place—made
a series of unsuccessful attempts to light a distillate stove burner. He did,
however, succeed in starting a fire—one that wiped out the whole town, or what
there was of it at the time.

   Such town as had sprung up was on the South side of the track, on land leased
from the Santa Fe. The Santa Fe finally platted a townsite on the North side of
the track, and notified the leasers that the railroad company-required the
ground on the South side for the company's yards, and that lots could be bought
in the townsite subject to oil drilling restrictions and to restrictions against
the sale of liquor. The latter restrictions were openly ignored in at least two
instances.

   J. W. Jameson then platted a town on the South side of the track, on land not
controlled by the Santa Fe, and neglected, purposely or otherwise, to include
the restrictions against the sale of liquor, in his deeds. This oversight (?)
gave birth to the famed, or ill-famed, Whiskey Row, where there was literally a
whole block of saloons right next door to each other, with card rooms and dance
halls as an adjunct of each. Surreys with flaring banners reading, "Free 'Bus to
Whiskey Row" provided transportation for revelers and sight-seers between the
North side and the South side. There seems to have been a shortage of builders'
hardware in the town about the time the "Row" was built. At any rate, none of
the joy palaces had any locks on them, so they just kept them open day and-night.

   A serious fire in the Jameson townsite caused heavy damage September 10,
1910, and the Santa Fe townsite gained a supremacy that it never relinquished.

   November 8, 1910, Taft was incorporated. The first officials were: Trustees,
H W. Blaisdell, H. A. Hopkins, E. L. Burnham, J. W. Ragsdale and J. P. Dooley;
Marshal, E. G. Wood; Clerk, Dr. Fred Bolstad. T. J. O'Boyle was appointed City
Recorder, and Fred Seybolt, City Attorney.

   Taft had not been incorporated a great while when an ordinance was passed
prohibiting the hitching of horses, cows or other domestic animals to any tree
or trees within the city. After the ordinance had been passed and duly
published, and thereby had become a law, some meddlesome individual took the
trouble to make a careful survey of the town, and subsequently reported that not
a single tree grew within the corporate limits.

   A concrete jail was built at a cost of $1500 in 1911. In November, 1912,
$41,000 worth of bonds were voted to provide funds for the construction of a
sewer system, and to provide mains for fire protection. In the sumber [sic] of
1913 a $20,000 grammar school was completed.

   Taft flourished for many a year, and even today, after all the ups and downs
of the oil business, it continues to rank as Kern County's second city, both in
point of population and in commercial importance

   The nearby town of Fellows first appeared on the map in 1908 as a railroad
terminal. In 1909 it became an unloading point for oil field supplies, and in
1910, James & Dooley, pioneer merchants of Taft, opened the first store there.
In 1911 it enjoyed quite a little boom, but it never gained any outstanding
commercial prestige.

   Another oil section, somewhat removed from the one just described, enjoyed
quite a play during this period, and is credited with some profitable production
records. Reference is made to the Lost Hills Field.

   This field was prospected as early as 1899 by Orlando Barton, the son of a
Kern County pioneer. In 1907 he participated in the formation of the Lost Hills
Mining Company, and located the section on which the discovery well of the
district—the Lakeshore—was to be eventually drilled. This was Section 30, 26-21.

   In December, 1909, he succeeded in interesting Martin & Dudley, Visalia real
estate men, in the district. He picked the site for Lakeshore Well No. 1, and
predicted that commercial production would be encountered within 600 feet.
Drilling was begun in 1910. A fine showing of oil was encountered at 160 feet.
When the drill had touched a depth of 527 feet, the oil rose to within eighty
feet of the top of the casing, and continuous bailing failed to lower it in the
least. Martin & Dudley promptly ceased operations, placed a guard at the
property, and set out to acquire all the land in the immediate locality, an
enterprise in which they were signally successful. They then made a deal with
the Associated Oil Company, and when would-be locators rushed in, they found
that there was no ground to be had.

   In the Winter of 1910-11 Martin & Dudley laid out the townsite of Lost Hills
on Sections 2 and 3, 27-2 L G. T. Nighbert erected the first building, which he
rented to Mrs. Hamilton and which she operated as a restaurant. Nighbert also
built the first hotel and the first store building. The latter building was
leased to Crow & Cullen who conducted a store in it after they had begun
business in a tent.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Where Rolls the Kern

A History of Kern County, California
By Herbert G. Comfort

MOORPARK, CALIFORNIA:
The ENTERPRISE Press
1934

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